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40% of employers freeze pay

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From this mornings Globe and Mail 40 percent of employers freeze pay:

More than 40 per cent of Canadian companies have now imposed, or plan to impose, salary freezes this year, according to a survey released Tuesday by consulting firm Towers Perrin.

And “salaries for senior executives are more likely to be frozen than any other group,” Towers Perrin found in a survey of 246 organizations.

The report comes a day after three major Canadian banks – the Bank of Montreal, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and Bank of Nova Scotia – reported that their chief executive officers have agreed to voluntarily give up more than $15-million in compensation.

Towers Perrin reported that only 7 per cent of its survey participants have made significant reductions in staff levels, although another 18 per cent are considering major layoffs, the firm reported.

On the same subject, I’ve heard of a number of Vancouver companies that have been offering pay cuts / reduced hours in lieu of layoffs.  How are you and your family being affected by the accelerating downturn in the local economy?

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blackdog

Patiently Waiting:

The big downside to voting is that when you do it seems to put you at the top of the list for jury duty. Anyone else have that experiance?

The justice system is so fucked up that they sentence 99% of the criminals to either a native healing circle or Nintendo time at home with go out privelages since the court never follows up on sentencing. Whats the point of getting screwed up by an indeterminate time in jury duty when the judge disregrds everything thats said or proven during the trial and sends the perp home to shoot dope for 6 months.

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blackdog

WORLDS GREATEST LOVER:

The good old days of getting laid off and going on UI are long gone for sure. Back in the good old days you could go to Mexico 6 to 8 months and surf Puerto Escondido and have your housemates fill out the UI cards for you when they came in the mail.

YES YES YES NO YES, this was the sequence of questions on the card. Houseloads of people were rotating in and out filing each others cards. The checks would pile up in your bank account and another groovy year would pass. It was a real blast to be on UI in the 70's. Ah the good old days.

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blackdog

patriotz:

OK silly buggers it is then.

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blackdog

Via:

Thats the pits alright. 2 months is a generous notice these days. In some business they just walk you out one day and take your pass. The EI peeps aren't your friends either. If your friend gets any severance EI divides it up into the sum you would recieve in weekly terms and you have to exhaust the severance before they will kick in.

Am I wrong anyone? I think thats how they work.

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NO -LYMPICS

Patiently Waiting Says

"But I still feel obligated to vote after so many have died for the right"

Yes I agree wholeheartedly, go and vote, we owe them a lot for their sacrifice.

===

Also good to see the empathy out there for others…the economy may have a silver lining in that it forces us, or reminds us or makes us realize what IS truly important in life, and to be there for friends and family.

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Patiently Waiting

Re politics: I don't know who to vote for. I can't vote for the Campbell Liberals or the James NDP. A Green vote is just a protest vote as they won't win any seats (not to mention their policies are a mishmash). But I still feel obligated to vote after so many have died for the right.

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Patiently Waiting

Via,

Remind your friend to use all resources. Being on EI gives him access to retraining programs and counseling. He can even make something good out of this if can train for an even better career.

There is no shame in using these resources as he has paid for them all those 20 years through his premiums.

To be blunt, if I landed in EI tomorrow, I wouldn't just grab at any job. I could just get laid off again. I would concentrate on the skills upgrade while living on reduced income.

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WORLDS GREATEST LOVE

I'd like to say this in general to everyone: be there for your friends. I've been laid off before. I thought I'd look forward to the time off, I have enough emergency savings to cover the bills, and I've got a lot of side projects I'd like to do. It didn't work out the way I planned. After just a few days I started getting depressed and I'm generally a positive person. The low feeling caught me completely off-guard, because there were all these thing I wanted to do with my free time. The thing I missed was the moment to moment feeling of people NEEDING what I was providing that I had regularly while I was at work. The one thing that helped distract me from my self-pity was visiting with friends. Go for coffee, invite them out for… Read more »

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patriotz

blackdog:

We had three years of unelected government culminating in the unelected idiocy of Ujjal Dosanj

Unelected you say? What member of the government was unelected?

When you vote in a provincial election, you are electing your MLA for the next 4 years. The party with the most MLA's forms the government, and the leader of that party becomes premier. It's up to the parties to choose their own leaders, and they can do it any time they want. If you don't like their choice, you can vote for the other party in the next election.

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Via

It should be "she" in the paragraph above, sorry.

Anyway, it sucks all around. My friend worked in customer service for a large company btw. Most of us are scared as more and more friends seem to be heading to the chopping block.

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Via

Thanks for the info. My friend is very depressed. He has worked there since he was 25. He also supports his father (who is sick) and is overwhelmed by this.

My husband just had a shuffling of his schedule but no hour cuts. I think I'm getting a wage freeze, but at least I'm not on the chopping block yet. Tough times.

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WORLDS GREATEST LOVE

Via: Sorry, if you're laid off from downsizing, that's it. Two months is pretty generous by normal standards, sounds like they had some respect for the fact that she's been there for 20 years at least. If you don't have anything else in your employment contract, I believe they only have to give you two weeks notice. Hopefully your friend has some savings cushion built up. There can be a long gap before the EI kicks in after you lose your job, you need to be able to cover about a month of lost income before you get the reduced income from EI, which is usually about half the normal income you've just lost. I don't know how anybody would be able to get by on welfare in Vancouver. Support your friend by taking them out (or better yet, inviting… Read more »

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Via

This just happened to a friend. I have no idea what to do so I'm asking: can you do something if you were laid-off after 20 years for no reason? They just cut personnel at the company where my friends works and she doesn't know if she has any legal recourse. They've given her two months notice and that is it.

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blackdog

NO -LYMPICS:

I say he appoints a successor and bails. We had that fiasco rained on us when the NDP kept naming 'nominee premiers' remember. We had three years of unelected government culminating in the unelected idiocy of Ujjal Dosanj when the NDP wanted to run out the clock and pound through all those crazy union contracts.

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NO -LYMPICS

blackdog:

Golden Gate Bridge? Exactly what came to mind….there would be riots in San Fran if they ever thought about demolishing that. Same with other classic bridges.

I am no fan of the NDP, but I am getting tired of Campbell, I think he is seriously losing it. His autocratic style has left him with a bunch of ass -kissers…with few if any challengers to his Crown. Pulling a $3 Billion bridge out of his ass? , WTF is he smoking ? He's exposing himself as a wonk for vested interests ONLY, probably setting himself up for nice Private Sector job as a reward .

You are right…I also predict he's gone after the Olympics…but then again he has legislated fixed election dates has he not? or will he change that too ?

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blackdog

NO -LYMPICS: I laughed hard when The Great Gordo said that because the " Port Mann' bridge was now forty five years old that it would have to be torn down anyway". And that was the reason he was spinning to us as to why we should be willing to fork over many billions for the new 10 lane fantasy bridge over the Fraser. May I remind myself how old the 1st and 2nd narrows Bridges are? What about Burrard St? All tear downs Gordo? Howz' about the nasty old Brooklyn Bridge or San Francisco's Golden Gate. All functionally obselete according to the Mighty Gordonski. He also went loo loo in his speech when he said 'that BC infrastructure development was good for the country". Is that a hidden threat that you're leaving us for national politics Gordy? And since… Read more »

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Aleks

The IBM layoffs really put the lie to anyone who thinks their job is safe because they work for a big company that is in good financial shape. I'm sure IBM will survive the depression just fine; that doesn't mean IBM employees can say the same.

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MrBear

The Pope: "Thanks for your concern, but I can guarantee that the poster who has been doing this is neither a realtor nor a salesperson."

I notice that the Friday's open discussion, where we first saw major arrow clickage, resulted in my good friend blackdog being seriously modded up. I'm assuming our troll wouldn't be stupid enough to highlight his own handle, would he?

Anyway, I have some UNIX/Apache/PHP skillz, if you need some help in that department.

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MrBear

The Pope: That is a brilliant link for troll redirection. No wonder you are The Pope!

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RJB

Pope, please share the banned IPs with everyone. We need to form a mob and track them down. 😉

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NO -LYMPICS

Thanks Pope:

Good to hear you are on top of it.

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NO -LYMPICS

depressionwatch Yes… Unlike other commodities, RE tend to last. Oversupply in perishable items (such as farm prodicts)relegates them to be recycled or even outright composted. Marketing boards are used to keep supply and demand in a stable equilibrium. However, our Gov'ts have failed us miserably, by allowing the market to reach such "Tulipmania" levels that it has not just flatlined, it has imploded like a black hole and taken everything down with it. IMHO, we have a Metro Vancouver which should work in sync, but each member seemed to want to enter a pissing match of their own individual Local Gov't share of the development pie . Drving throughout the Lower Mainland, I couldn't beelive the pace of construction, and I have lived through several booms. These new homes condos will not be recycled or composted like a perishable…..they will… Read more »

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admin

NO -LYMPICS: Thanks for your concern, but I can guarantee that the poster who has been doing this is neither a realtor nor a salesperson. Their goal is to make local developers look bad. It is someone who up until recently was very negative about the local market. It's possible that they recently purchased a condo and are trying to talk up the market, but I believe it's far more likely that they're simply bored and this has become a game for them.

We've been quietly banning IPs to try to cut down on the trolling, and we're working on fixing the comment rating system to stop abuse. If you try to load up this site and see this page instead, you're on a banned IP.

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NO -LYMPICS

Watched Premier Campbell on the news and the Bridge announcement. Man, does he look like he needs medication (or a stiff drink??) to calm the nerves…..he looks choked and shaking, can his hair go any whiter? However, re the Bridge…IS now the time to build a $3 Billion bridge?(and double the size that previously suggested)? Who will gain and who will pay ? The economy is tanking, the news is more and more in sync with what we VCI posters are stating…so Campbell has no way to accurately determine what funds he will have available. Back to deficit financing ? Sorry, throughout the world there are bridges far older than the Port Mann…and still in use. If its getting "too old", that is often the fault of the maintenance aspects, or the old trick of delaying or denying maintenance so… Read more »

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NO -LYMPICS

Fellow VCI posters; I have had to contact the moderator twice this week about how the VCI site is being hi-jacked in various ways, …and was informed that the moderator is getting a bit overwhelmed by the trolls. My own definition of troll is those idiots who think advertising ONNI is a good deal for umpteenth time and that type of BS. If a troll wants to post that continually THEN PUT UP THE FACTS OR SHUT UP !!!! SUGGESTION: Perhaps a warning from the Pope and then a 3 strikes YER OUT rule should apply to these trolls. We have to keep in mind that the TROLL CONSPIRACY /PLOT may be to piss off the Pope/Moderators so he pulls the plug on VCI and the TROLLS win…(BAD!!!). In addition , many of us have the suspicion that many of… Read more »

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